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Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Luongo list

The prospective landing spots are being assembled, as Roberto Luongo offers up a few signals that perhaps his time in British Columbia is near an end.

The Canucks goaltender, the mainstay in the Vancouver net over the last few years took the high road as the Canucks season came to an end, suggesting that if asked, he would be willing to waive his "no trade clause", though we imagine only if the right fit can be found by GM Mike Gillis.

A prospect that perhaps has the other members of the NHL lodge holding the upper hand, considering the nature of Luongo's contract, the will of the fan base which seems to be on Team Cory as this season comes to an end and the apparent decision of Luongo to seek other pastures, as long we imagine as they are green ones...

To that end, there has been no shortage of speculation as to where Luongo and his hefty contract may end up. The most mentioned destination it would seem is Florida, more Tampa than Miami, though as always in matters of goaltending, the Leafs are in the mix for any number of reasons.

As you can find on Twitteror see from the many links below, Where in the World is Roberto Luongo going to go is fast becoming the favourite discussion point for hockey fans one and all.

We suspect that the process will move slower, rather than faster, most likely heading towards the NHL draft in June, where perhaps the Canucks can parlay, picks, cap space and player options into a winnable situation.

Regardless, while more and more it appears that Lou has played his last game in a Canucks uniform, the fans in Vancouver should be thankful for the most part for his time on the West Coast. While last year's Stanley Cup run provided for a few disappointments, the bulk of Luongo's work in Vancouver was of top calibre, no one could point a finger in his direction this year for the teams early exit from Stanley Cup competition.

His appearances in Games one and two provided the Canucks with ample opportunity to compete for Lord Stanley's Cup, it was a shortcoming on offence and some deficiencies on the blue line that sent the Kings on to the second round.

Luongo, who no doubt has a sense of pride, said little upon his replacement in net for games three and beyond, offering up his support from the bench, if he indeed is destined for a departure from BC he did it with class from his end.

In the end, as they can the Canucks may decide to keep both Luongo and Schneider for one more year, the best one / two tandem in the league regardless of which starts, though reality suggests that both are number one's somewhere and deserve that status.

Vancouver can look for any number of issues to solve in the off season, perhaps Luongo is the key to solving them, but if Vancouver fans look hard at their team, he wasn't the cause of them.